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Sunday, July 3, 2011

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - 2005

Well, I decided to skip reviewing the third film for now, because it has been quite awhile since I have seen it, and I do not feel particularly comfortable speaking my opinion since it changes so very often. But no worries, all of the films, including the third, will have been reviewed by me before the midnight showing of Deathly Hallows Part 2. And now for my review of the fourth Harry Potter film, the Goblet of Fire.

There is a tournament announced in Hogwart's set to test the skill of the most powerful young wizards in the current world of wizardry. But unfortunately for the extra young hopefulls, there is an age limit of seventeen years old, which immediately excludes fourteen year old Harry Potter. So the students must write their name on a card and toss it into the Goblet of Fire, and it must choose the ones who are worth of compeating in this potentially deadly challenge. After the names have been chosen, without anyone understand how, another card comes out of the goblet with Harry's name on it, forcing him to compeat even though he has no desire too. This puts our three friends, and a few more they make along the way, on what is the best, and most intense journey they have had yet in their lives.

So far, on this somewhat Harry Potter marathon I am having, I have seen films 1-5, and have number six arriving tomorrow. Currently, the Goblet of Fire, the fourth installment in the series, is my favorite. Mike Newell is the director for this one, but his direction was my least favorite part of the film, and I think it is probably for the best that he only did one film. To me, the Goblet of Fire felt much more like Steve Kloves' film than his, as do all of these until David Yates comes in and does a wonderful job in the director's chair. And I think he could have a future in something other than the Harry Potter series one day. But back to Newell, the biggest downfall of the film is that he doesn't take charge and do his job here, the film is improved (besides direction) in everywhere it needs to have been, and Kloves' brilliant screenplay is what makes it click, not the direction, unfortunately.

More specifically on the screenplay, I think I can safely say this is the best screenwriting of the series. The character development is straight up fantastic, and though it may have less action than the first three films, I think that is why it works so well. This is a movie not for newcomers, but for fans of the books and movies. The audience spends more time with the characters than any of the other films, and after awhile we really feel like we are involved in their lives. We learn more and more about the history of Harry, and the friendships grow stronger. Not to mention (spoiler) we have our first encounter with Voldemort himself. My favorite type of film is a character driven one, this thankfully falls into that category.

The acting is still not to the point of being worth praising, not for the three kids anyways, but I will admit they are slowly but surely getting better and better. I am not going to go much into their performances, as it isn't too much anything new, I will just focus on the supporting cast. Michael Gambon is doing a much finer job as Dumbledore (or I am just getting used to him) but I do have one complaint, and i'm not sure exactly how this is supposed to go as I have not read the books. When Richard Harris was Dumbledore I felt more like his character was just a wise, kind man, which I know me partly be due to the actor's age. But here Gambon seems more of a stern person, that I do not care for very much. It is just a simple, meaningless complaint though. Alan Rickman as Snape is phenomenal. Making the audiences minds go back and forth from whether or not to believe if he is actually a good person. The development of his character is amazing, and so is his portrayal. Gary Oldman proves to me just how extraordinary of an actor he is, the role of Sirius Black was quite a role to accomplish, and he does so brilliantly. And I am terribly surprised I am about to say this, but Robert Pattinson showed me that there is hope for him in the future, and that Twilight is not proving his acting ability, or maybe just the script is so beyond bad the actors look worse than they are. He was not great or anything as Cedric, but her certainly wasn't half bad. Our main characters may be slowly getting better, but their supporting cast certainly has the job done here.

Overall, the Goblet of Fire is not perfect, but a very, very good film, other than Mike Newell's sloppy direction, from someone who does not even know what movie he is trying to make. The acting all in all was fairly solid, and the visual effects (as always) are beautiful. The Harry Potter series is just getting better and better for me, and I am getting more and more excited about the last film.

4 comments:

Great review man, this one was pretty awesome, and I mean i noticed a lot of non-fans of the book thought it lacked action while I thought it had tons of action scenes. The movie actually adds in a lot more then the book. For example, the first round where he fights the dragon. In the book, he never leaves the arena, and it actually lasts like 4 min. While in the movie, the dragon escapes and they have a big battle outside and all. But yeah, love your reviews man, Keep it up.

Even though I've bought my son most of the Harry Potter films on DVD I've never actually watched any of them, so I've certainly got a lot of catching up to do.I was pleased to hear you praise the screenwriting for this film, the guy who wrote this and all the other Harry Potter screenplays was Steve Kloves who directed two of my all time favourite films (Fabulous Baker Boys and Flesh And Bone), it's a shame for me that he hasn't directed since 1993, but my loss as a fan of his work has been Harry Potter's gain.One thing I was wondering Matt, is it possible for a Happy Potter novice like me to enjoy these films individually or do you recommend watching them in chronological order?

Yeah, that's funny because I remembered you posting about him not too long ago. I would definitely say chronological order. Individually would make them much harder to understand and harder to get into. Anyways, thanks for reading Paul!

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I am a 16 year old American and amateur film critic that loves movies. I look at them not as entertainment, but as art. The way I critique films may not always be considered "proper", because that is not my goal. I have made this blog to improve my knowledge of cinema, and share my opinions along the way.